LOS ANGELES >> Bryce Alford experienced his lowest moment at UCLA nine months ago when a plane towed a banner over his Westwood apartment calling for his father to be fired. Five days ago, he and Bruins basketball coach Steve Alford were i...

South Florida football coach Willie Taggart has informed the school that he is leaving to become the coach at Oregon, a person with direct knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity Wednesday...

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UCLA

Redshirt junior Eddie Vanderdoes officially traded his final year of eligibility at UCLA for a chance at the NFL on Monday, announcing on social media that he would be entering the NFL draft this spring. Vanderdoes, who suffered a torn ACL in the first game of the 2014 season, was honored as a senior prior to UCLA’s last home game of the season this year and was carried off the field by his teammates after his final practice, as is the UCLA tradition for seniors. “I...

UCLA

Kentucky and Villanova remain the top two teams in The Associated Press college basketball poll while Baylor made the week’s biggest jump, from No. 20 to ninth. The Kentucky Wildcats (6-0) received 40 first-place votes Monday from the 65-member national media panel while Villanova, also known as the Wildcats, was No. 1 on 20 ballots. North Carolina (7-0), which moved up one place to third after winning the Maui Invitational, got four No. 1 votes. Kansas, Duke and Virginia...

By Jim O’Connell
The Associated Press|1 week, 3 days ago

UCLA

ANAHEIM >> Four big guys. Two point guards. Six shooters, depending on the night. Eight defenders, depending on how closely they listen to their coach. At last UCLA might have a basketball team that doesn’t just add up, but multiplies. The first four games were stretching exercises for the Bruins. So was the fifth, a breeze over Portland in the first round of the Wooden Legacy. But Nebraska was no speed bump in the semifinals, and neither was Texas A&M in the...

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Ranking top 10 sports events Nov. 28-Dec. 4 you won’t want to miss: NO. 1: COLLEGE BASKETBALL: UCLA at KENTUCKY Details/TV: At Rupp Arena, Lexington, Ky., Saturday, 9:30 a.m., Ch. 2 Our best recollection is that the Bruins invited the Wildcats to Pauley Pavilion right about this time last season — a first for the Kentucky program. Ranked No. 1 in the country, John Calipari’s team with future NBA first-round picks Jamal...

UCLA

ANAHEIM >> Bryce Alford’s volume-shooting days are over. Seven games into his senior season at UCLA, he is making each shot count. Alford buried a clutch 3-pointer with 1:11 to play in the Wooden Legacy championship game, the decisive basket in UCLA’s 74-67 win over Texas A&M at Honda Center Sunday night. Freshman point guard Lonzo Ball, who tallied 16 points and 10 assists on his way to earning the Wooden Legacy tournament MVP, is the type of...

UCLA

While UCLA’s offense suffered from season-crippling identity crisis, the team’s defense also came up well short of expectations in last Saturday’s season-ending loss. California controlled the ball for more than 42 minutes, converting 6 of 19 third-down tries and twice more on fourth down. After averaging 23.1 points allowed through the first seven games of the year, the Bruins yielded 33.6 points in the final five games. “We just have to keep our...

UCLA

UCLA’s experiment with a physical, pro-style offense blew up in the team’s face and now the man behind the system is out of a job. Kennedy Polamalu, UCLA’s first-year offensive coordinator and third-year running backs coach, will not have his contract renewed after overseeing one of the worst offensive seasons in recent UCLA history. The Bruins (4-8, 2-7 Pac-12) finished their worst season under head coach Jim Mora with a 36-10 loss to California on Saturday...

UCLA

BERKELEY >> UCLA’s cornerbacks couldn’t have picked a worse game to catch the injury bug. Both of the Bruins’ starting corners were slowed due to injury against California on Saturday, allowing Cal’s vaunted Bear Raid offense to take advantage of a vulnerable UCLA defense. Neither fifth-year senior Fabian Moreau nor sophomore Nate Meadors practiced at all this week. Moreau started, despite having almost no mobility in his left shoulder when he...

UCLA

BERKELEY >> Mercifully, the UCLA football rebuilding process can finally start. In a fitting finale for a disappointing season, UCLA flopped in an embarrassing 36-10 loss to California at Memorial Stadium on Saturday night. Reconstruction of a program that was once thought to be a challenger for a Pac-12 champion will start as soon as possible. “We all have to resist the urge to look somewhere else for the problem and look at ourselves first,” head coach Jim...